Using an archival prospective design, the authors studied associations among parental divorce occurring during participants' childhood, adult psychosocial mediators, and mortality over the life span of a subgroup of participants (N = 1,261) in the Terman Life Cycle Study (1921-1991). Children from divorced families grew up to show a higher risk of premature mortality across the life span. The higher mortality risk for men was explained, in part, when 3 mediating factors were controlled: Men who had experienced parental divorce were more likely to have their own marriages end in divorce, obtained less education, and engaged in fewer service activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Public Health
September 1995
Objectives: Childhood sociodemographic, psychosocial, and environmental factors are often assumed to affect adult health and longevity. These relationships were prospectively tested by using the 7-decade Terman Life Cycle Study of Children With High Ability (n = 1285).
Methods: Parental socioeconomic status, childhood health, objective childhood stressors (e.
The relationship between mental health status and longevity was examined in an archival prospective cohort study (N = 1,103) derived from work begun by Lewis Terman in the 1920s. Degree of psychological maladjustment, cumulatively rated by Terman and his colleagues as of 1950, was found to be related to higher risk of all-cause mortality over a 4-decade follow-up period. The differences among causes of death were nonsignificant, but there was some indication that mental health problems were more strongly related to deaths from injury and cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious research showed that conscientiousness (social dependability) in childhood predicted longevity in an archival prospective cohort study of bright children first studied by Terman in the 1920s (H. S. Friedman et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpulsive, undercontrolled personalities and major family stresses are known predictors of impaired adjustment, but long-term health effects are unclear. In an archival prospective cohort design, we followed up on L. M.
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